FREEHOLD – Students part of the Peer Leadership program from Freehold Township High School raised over $2,800 for the “Coins for Kids” fundraiser.
The “Coins for Kids” fundraiser takes place every year at Freehold Township High School and the funds raised are donated to the Pediatric Department at CentraState Medical Center.
Health & Physical Education teacher Frank Gualtieri works with the Peer Leadership program led by teachers Sean Leahy and Alex Dohan to organize and hold the “Coins for Kids” fundraiser.
The “Coins for Kids” fundraiser involves the Peer Leaders to walk around the cafeteria at lunch time and collect spare change from staff and students. Freehold Township High School wrote how the buckets would fill up quickly with spare change.
After collecting change, Mr. Gualtieri and the Peer Leaders would then present the staff at CentraState Medical Center with a check, and the donated funds would go to the Pediatric Department at the hospital.
However, this year the fundraiser could not be held at the high school, since there’s no daily lunch period due to COVID-19. The group faced this challenge head on and figured out a different way to collect money for the fundraiser.
The group decided to sell face masks that displayed a “FT”, the school’s logo design. They were able to sell the masks safely throughout the community.
“This year we raised $2,896, which is a record collection for us. It is that much more impressive considering we could not do what we traditionally do, which is collect coins during lunch,” Mr. Gualtieri said. As a result, the donations collected this year will be used to create a mural for the Pediatric Center. Freehold Township High School said, “an elaborate ‘child-friendly’ mural will be built in the area of the Pediatric Center where children are received for admission
